Update - 9/29/06 - After a lousy meal at Tsukushi, and realizing that Sakagura was just around the corner, I dragged Hong-An over for a follow-up few courses. (Somewhat inspired by Aaron's second birthday dinner at Nobu a few years back, after a lousy first dinner.) Thank the lord she agreed... it was amazing. I couldn't remember what I'd ordered last time, but we sat at the bar, and ordered just two dishes: uzaku and maguro yamakake (loosely translated: tuna and mountain yams.) we also got a carafe of fantastic cold sake, masumi nanago. tasted like plum and some wild berries. so delicious. the uzaku was fantastic. definitely better than the first time I'd been. the first bite made up for the terrible first dinner. then came the maguro yamakake. wow. weird. any wonders of the tuna were eliminated by the weird gooey white slop slopped on top. as we ate away at the tuna, the pureed mountain yam seemed to grow like a streganona monstrosity. it wasn't bad... just weird. I don't think I'd order that again. However, the experience was so perfect, I was glad we returned.
Original post: Wow. A fantastic very-Japanese sashimi parlour in the hidden basement of a midtown office building. I regret not writing down what we'd ordered. But lemme see what I can cobble together....
The first (and best) dish we ordered was some kind of thinly-sliced Fluke. Actually, I suspect it may have been HIRAME CARPACCIO (Sliced fluke w/salmon roe, plum paste, shiso leaf & olive oil). Absolutely delicious. Paper-thin slices of fluke. Brought an orgasmic expression of shock and awe to my face, according to Daryl. An amazing way to start a meal.
The Agedashi Tofu was the best I've ever had. Three large very silken tofu blocks, served in a glorious simple ponzu sauce. For these two dishes alone, I would definitely return.
A Daikon Salad, served with a spicy mayonnaise, wasn't very good. I was picturing small, thick yellow slices of picked daikon. This was a huge bowl of long and very thin clear slices of (unpickled?) daikon. Certainly tasty, but not worth the occupied table space.
We had an $18 carafe, btw, of fresh cloudy cold sake. It was on the springtime sake menu. They had a huge collection, and we asked merely for a nice smooth one. This certainly was. Delicious.
Maguro Tar Tar (Chopped row tuna, salmon roe) - very good, but not as amazing as the two intro dishes. There were too many competing flavors in this round stack of chopped tuna topped with small pink and black roe.
Uzaku (Chilled broiled eel & sliced cucumber w/house vinegar dressing) - again, very good, but not great. for the same reasons. it was served in much the same fashion as the maguro tartar: cucumber, then eel, then cucumber, and again eel. the best part of this dish was the cucumber at the very bottom of the dish -- which had been soaking in the vinegar for far longer than the rest of the pile. Wonderful taste sensation.
I feel like we ordered more, but can't quite remember. A great restaurant -- decor, food, service, toto toilet seats, etc. I enjoyed thoroughly. (Note: no sushi - only sashimi!)
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